Open Your Eyes
by fembuck
Summary: Ivy's with Glenn and Rachel's just going to have to learn to live with that. Or is she? Sequel to 'Burning', Rachel/Ivy, femslash
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **Open Your Eyes

**Author:** Janine

**Fandom:** The Hollows

**Pairing:** Ivy/Rachel

**Rating:** PG

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them.

**Summary:** Ivy's with Glenn and Rachel's just going to have to learn to live with that. Or is she?  
**Note:** This story is a sequel to my fic "Burning". You may want to read/re-read that one first before reading this, but it is not strictly necessary to in order to understand what's happening in this story.

---

The noise of the restaurant swirled around me, my surroundings nothing by a haze of sound and bright colours. I felt myself beginning to sway as my mind wandered further and further and I blinked, and forced myself to concentrate on something.

Something turned out to be Ivy's plate of food, and under my now watchful eyes she lowered her chopsticks to the plate and delicately scooped up a snow pea which she gracefully lifted to her mouth. I followed the path of her hand, my tongue unconsciously peeking out of my mouth to lick at my lips as I did, and when her lips parted to deposit the small vegetable inside, my lips parted in sympathy.

_Oh, to be that snow pea_.

I was vaguely aware of Glenn speaking as Ivy began to chew, but I didn't strain to focus on what he was saying. These days, unless he was talking about a case I rarely paid much attention to what he was saying. Instead of focusing on Glenn, I choose to slide my gaze further up so that I could see Ivy's entire face instead of just her mouth, which was curved up into a sly smile.

I jerked back slightly when I caught sight of Ivy's eyes, though even in my surprise I noted that her lips curved just a little bit more in response to my reaction. Ivy was speaking with Glenn, but her eyes had been on me, they still were, and only a thin band of brown remained around the edges.

I recovered quickly and met her gaze openly. Ivy said nothing in response to my look, but as Glenn poked around on his plate trying to determine what exactly it was that he was eating, Ivy lowered her chopsticks again and my eyes followed the movement.

She snagged another snow pea, and I watched raptly as she lifted the elegant wooden sticks to her mouth, placing them a little further in than she normally would so that she could suggestively suck them out of her mouth.

_Goddamn_, I thought, almost moaning as she stared at me unblinkingly the whole time.

Unconsciously, my hand drifted up towards my neck, but before I could make contact with the raised skin there, before I could touch the scar that _Ivy_ had given me, a soft growling sound registered with me and my hand stopped just shy of my neck.

Focusing my attention in front of me once more, I found Ivy glaring at me, the ring of brown left in her eyes even thinner now. The playful, challenging look that had been in her eyes earlier was gone now, leaving nothing but warning and a silent threat in its wake.

Immediately I lowered my hand back down to the table and picked up my own chopsticks to keep my hands occupied. We were in a restaurant, out in public, and I didn't want to agitate Ivy. Touching my scar always kicked her vamp instincts – and I was sure her libido – into overdrive and no one in the restaurant needed to deal with a cranky, sexually frustrated living vampire that night, least of all me.

I would have liked to have shifted some of the blame for my faux pas onto her, but despite my urge to touch my scar, I could tell that Ivy wasn't releasing any pheromones. She wasn't playing on the scar in anyway. That gaze she had leveled me with and the things she was doing to those chopsticks certainly had an affect on me, but she wasn't manipulating me unfairly.

"Ivy?" Glenn asked with a bit of concern when he picked up on the growling.

"It's nothing," Ivy said taking her eyes off of mine for the first time in minutes. "Chili pepper," she continued coughing a little and reaching for her glass of water. "Hot," she went on smiling a little sheepishly once she had put her glass down.

Glenn reached over and placed his hand on her back, rubbing gently to help her get over her pretend coughing fit. I scowled and looked down at my plate before bringing my chopsticks to the sticky rice on it which I proceeded to shift around restlessly.

I hated seeing them touch. I hated it with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns. I hated it like it was directed by Uwe Boll. I hated it. Hated it! Hated it! But I constantly, willingly subjected myself to it, because I wanted to be near Ivy.

Glenn was a good buffer for Ivy and me. His presence helped calm her, or at least gave her incentive to be on her best behavior. His presence also insured that our conversation topics stayed light and casual, or professional instead of veering off into the dangerously personal territory that Ivy and I often found ourselves exploring when we were alone together.

With Glenn around we could relax … for the most part, which was a nice change of pace.

"I thought nothing could make you sweat," Glenn commented, turning back to his food with a frown, no doubt wondering if whatever was hot enough to faze Ivy also resided on his plate.

"Most of the time that's true," Ivy drawled, her eyes on me once again.

Obviously I was forgiven for my earlier faux pas.

"But there are a few things that can ruffle my feathers," she continued, a pretty pink tongue peeking out from her mouth to lick at her lips.

I noted that she had a long tongue, and a rather dexterous one at that, and the observation made me shift in my seat. Ivy's eyes didn't leave mine, and as I continued to shift a positively sinful smile stretched across her lips again.

"Are you okay, Rachel?" she asked, her question drawing Glenn's eyes over to my fidgeting form. "You look a little flushed. Did you bite a pepper too?"

Glenn stared at me for a moment and then a look of alarm came over his features as he confirmed that my face had indeed reddened. His dark eyebrows scrunched together and then he looked back down at his plate with a renewed sense of suspicion.

I glared at Ivy once his eyes were off of me, and with a supremely smug look she shrugged her shoulders lightly.

"Yeah, pepper," I forced out, still glaring at her as I reached for my glass of water to help sell the story. "You could have warned me," I muttered a second later, putting the glass back down.

"You should have been paying attention," Ivy shot back in a tone that was a little sharper than before but not noticeably combative.

Glenn snorted softly in amusement beside her and I frowned knowing that he always found it amusing when Ivy and I fought – as long as she won and stayed in a good mood that was.

He took her words at face value, but I knew that Ivy wasn't talking about any chili pepper. Her words were a reference to the way we had been dancing around each other for the past two years. Her words were a reference to me finally realizing that I felt more than 'sisterly' affection for her. Her words were a chastisement to me for taking so long to realize that I wanted to lick her like a Popsicle.

I should have been paying more attention; more attention to her and more attention to my own feelings. I hadn't been paying attention however, and now she was with Glenn. It had taken me too long to figure out what I was feeling and now it was too late to do anything about it.

Depressed and furious with myself I lifted my chopsticks morosely to my lips, intent on eating the pain away.

"Silly witch, you're still not looking," Ivy rasped in that dangerous and tantalizing grey silk purr that only made its appearance when the sun was down.

Her words surprised me and I found myself momentarily frozen, my chopsticks hovering mid-air in a way I was sure made me look truly 'special'.

"Pepper," Glenn murmured.

"What?" I asked blinking, glancing over at Glenn before I gave my head a little shake in an attempt to clear it.

"You're holding a pepper," he said nodding towards my chopsticks.

I looked down and then reared back a little seeing that he was right. On my chopsticks lay a chili pepper ready and waiting to sear my senses.

"Thanks," I muttered, carefully moving the chopsticks to the side and depositing the pepper on my napkin.

Glenn looked away again, and I very nearly turned back to my food as well, but I felt as if Ivy's eyes were still on me and looked over in her direction. It turned out that I was right and she was looking at me, rather intensely in fact. She held my gaze expectantly, as if she was waiting for me to do or say something, but all I could do was look back at her blankly.

After a few seconds of me staring at her with a face full of dumb, her eyebrows scrunched together in frustration and she let out a weary sigh and looked away from me.

Once she looked away, Ivy angled her body to me slightly, physically blocking me out as well of figuratively blocking me out by making a comment to Glenn about something they had seen when they were out on one of their no doubt super-awesome dates together. The action struck me as more than a little rude, which was usually not a word that I associated with Ivy, but in conjunction with her scrunched eyebrows and weary sigh I realized that she did it because she was upset with me and wanted me to know it without creating a scene.

I frowned again. I seemed to be doing that a lot lately, but my displeased expression was lost on Ivy who was still angled away from me. Clearly she was upset with me, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out why.

Shifting uncomfortably in my seat, I bit down on my bottom lip and started to go over the conversation we had been having, trying to determine if I had said anything particularly stupid or offense to her without realizing it.

After a moment, I determined that I hadn't said anything more exasperating than usual. If anything, Ivy had been the one who was being rude. She was the only that had called me a silly witch and told me that I still wasn't paying attention to what was going on in front of me and …

My eyes widened and I turned sharply in Ivy's direction but she still wasn't looking at me.

_Idiot_, I thought, wanting very badly to hit my forehead with the palm of my hand. _Box-dropping moron_, my mind hissed, continuing to berate itself as I stared at the shield of Ivy's once-again long black hair.

She wasn't talking about the pepper on the chopsticks! Or, at least, she wasn't _only_ talking about the pepper on my chopsticks. We'd been talking about our relationship in code before she spoke, and with her last comment to me she had still been speaking in code. I had taken a stupidly long time to figure out that I _like_ liked her, but she was trying to tell me that all hope wasn't lost. She was sitting right in front of me telling me that I still had a chance and I'd stared at her like a spaz and said nothing.

I slumped back in my seat, watching with narrowed eyes as Ivy reached across and plucked something off of Glenn's plate. I thought back to the conversation Ivy and I had in the kitchen the night after the three of us had taken an ill-fated trip to the local gelato shop. Ivy had told me that night that it was _my_ decision not to pursue anything with her, _and_ that it still was my decision. I'd taken her comment to mean that my decision had cost me her, and was going to continue to cost me, but I realized now that it was something else entirely. Her words had been a challenge. She was asking me to fight for her. She had been baiting me to come after her and win her, and in response I'd been moping around in sulky silence and sweat pants for weeks because I hadn't understood.

I straightened up in my chair with a renewed sense of energy and hope.

I hadn't understood the challenge before, but I did now and I was going to accept.

Goddammit, I was going to fight for my woman!

**To be continued …**


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: **Open Your Eyes

**Author:** Janine

**Fandom:** The Hollows

**Pairing:** Ivy/Rachel

**Rating:** PG

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them.

**Summary:** Ivy's with Glenn and Rachel's just going to have to learn to live with that. Or is she?  
**Note:** This story is a sequel to my fic "Burning". You may want to read/re-read that one first before reading this, but it is not strictly necessary to in order to understand what's happening in this story.

**---**

**PART 2**

Two Days Later

I stood nervously in front of the kitchen table, surveying with an appraising eye the food spread out over it. There were two pieces of expertly seasoned steak, one rare – for Ivy – and one prepared medium-well for me. There were herb mashed potatoes and home-made gravy. There were buttered and sautéed green-beans, freshly baked dinner rolls, sweet potato soup, and freshly baked corn-bread. There was an apple pie cooling on the counter, and in the freezer was a tub of vanilla ice-cream waiting to melt into the pie in the most delicious fashion for dessert. And finally, to top it all off, there was a large decanter full of body-warm red wine sitting in the middle of the kitchen table.

Everything was just how I wanted it. It was a perfectly baited Ivy trap.

I heard the door to the church open and jumped a little in surprise, even though I had been expecting Ivy to arrive home any moment. During a conversation we'd had that morning she had told me that Glenn was going to be out of town for a few days consulting on a case in Columbus. I immediately saw the opportunity his absence provided and suggested a quiet evening in, just the two of us.

"I'll cook," I had volunteered, knowing that Ivy enjoyed home-cooked meals and that I had been providing less and less of them for her.

She'd looked at me suspiciously, as if she thought I was up to something, but after a moment she nodded and murmured that a quiet evening in would be nice. She told me what time she expected to be back, and I had spent the rest of the afternoon shopping for and preparing dinner.

"Whoa," Ivy exclaimed softly, her beautiful cinnamon eyes widening as she jerked to a stop just inside the kitchen, her gaze focused on the kitchen table.

I turned around at the sound of her voice. The sight of her eased some of the nervousness I'd been feeling for the last few hours and an easy smile touched my lips.

"Hey," I said in an oh-so-suave, super-casual tone of voice, "you're right on time."

"Yeah," Ivy breathed out as her head turned to the side to take in the apple pie cooling on the counter. "I like to be punctual," she continued, her eyebrows furrowing together as she stared at the pie like she had never seen such a invention before. "Are we having guests?" she asked, blinking a bit more rapidly than usual as she turned to face me.

"No," I responded slowly. I was trying very hard not to smile in the face of her befuddlement. "We're having a nice meal and quiet night in, remember?"

"Of course I remember, it's just …" Ivy glanced around the kitchen again and shook her head faintly. "I just wasn't expecting all of this."

I understood her surprise. Usually when I cooked dinner for us it wasn't a grand affair. On more than a few occasions we hadn't even bothered to sit at the table, we had just stood at the large island in the center of the kitchen and eaten over it to protect the floor.

This night was different. I hadn't gone quite so far as to deck the kitchen out in candles to create mood lightening with Sade playing in the background, but I had busted out the china Ivy had 'borrowed' from her parents when we first moved in, which gave the dinner a distinctly fancier feel than the meals we had shared in the past.

"Ah," I drawled smiling, "so she _can_ be surprised," I continued teasingly as I moved towards the table and then picked up the decanter.

"On occasion, very rare and spread out occasions," Ivy responded teasingly, her voice more certain that it had been moments before. She had recovered from her initial surprise and the Tamwood sangfroid was back in place.

I poured her a glass of wine and held it out and she moved towards me to take her.

"Well," I declared she came to a stop beside me by the edge of the table. "Have a seat. We don't want it to get cold."

---

The meal was a delightfully relaxed affair, which was nice. Things could sometimes be uncomfortable and tense between Ivy and I, and I hadn't been sure how she would take the extravagance of the dinner I'd prepared, but after her initial shock she had been quite relaxed.

When we began to eat she asked me about the dishes I had prepared with a touch of amazement. Everything except for the wine had been the meal that her mother always prepared for her on her birthday when she was child. She had told me about it once, shortly after we moved in together, and I had remembered. When I explained she seemed shocked, as if me listening to her when she talked was positively unheard of, but she was pleased and her happiness dissolved any minor irritation I might have felt her flabbergasted reaction.

We talked about the run she had been on that afternoon. It was a case she had been working on for a week and had managed to finally close it that night. Unlike my shunned ass, Ivy was still getting plenty of work which was good for our electricity, cable and water bills, though it did leave me feeling like deadbeat a lot of the time. The excitement with which she recounted the capture stopped me from having those dour thoughts however, and I found myself quite caught up in the tale and the sound of her voice. She had a lovely voice and I very rarely got to hear it uninterrupted for such lengthy periods of time.

As I was moving around preparing dessert, Ivy surprised me by asking about my training sessions with Al. It made her nervous when I was in the Ever-After so we very rarely discussed my time there until it was absolutely necessary. Apparently her curiosity had finally gotten the better of her though, and as we sat down to apple pie and ice-cream I talked to her about the skills I was very slowly developing under Al's often disparaging tutelage.

Ivy was a little more tense than she had been during the beginning of our meal as I talked about Al and the spells I was learning, but the only thing that really provoked a reaction out of her was a mention of Pierce's name, which caused her lip to curl up momentarily revealing a sharp, glinting canine tooth.

"I don't enjoy his company," Ivy muttered when I smiled at her reaction.

"I'm not enjoying it very much these days, either," I replied grimacing a little. The more time I spent around the smug, self-serving, condescending, overly verbose witch the harder I found it to remember why I had ever been attracted to him. I mean, teenage hormones only explained away so much, right?

"At least you don't have to spend twenty-four hours around him once a week," I sighed.

"I thought he was Rachel-candy," Ivy said looking over at me with a touch of surprise.

"Yeah, well. Candy's bad for my teeth," I responded rolling my eyes.

"Not to mention your overall life expectancy," Ivy added, her cinnamon eyes dancing playfully.

I sighed deeply and muttered, "That too." Oh, the trouble I'd gotten myself into because of men. Better not to think about it really.

"Your hair is almost as long as it was when we first met," I said suddenly allowing my eyes to roam leisurely overly Ivy's beautiful oval face and stunningly dark hair.

I desperately wanted to change the subject but what I had said was also true. I'd always loved Ivy's long hair. She looked amazing no matter what she did with it, but I was happy to see the return of her long, flowing locks.

_Much better to run my fingers through, and grab onto_, I thought as my tongue peaked out to wet my lips.

A mental image of my hand gripping Ivy's hair as she rested between my legs came to my mind and I shifted in my chair as a strong wave of desire thundered through me. Desperate to control the reaction of my body, I began to think about the depleting Polar Bear situation hoping to depress myself enough to calm down my libido.

"I guess it is," Ivy murmured, lifting her hand to playing with the ends of the dark, silky strands.

God, I was so incredibly jealous of her right hand at that moment.

_Polar bears, polar bears, polar bears_, I frantically chanted as I felt my body responding to the thought of Ivy's silky hair slipping through my fingers.

"I like it long," I breathed out without really realizing what was coming out of my mouth.

Goddman my brain to hell! It wasn't focusing on polar bears at all.

"I mean you always look good," I said straightening up in my seat when I realized what was what coming out of my mouth. "But you look … you know, even _more_ … good, when it's like … long," I finished haltingly, wishing that I was dexterous enough to shove my own foot in my mouth.

Ivy was silent for a moment and I had to struggle hard not to squirm under her impassive gaze.

"Thank you," she murmured lowly a few seconds later.

I released a breath I didn't know I had been holding. I was relieved that she wasn't going to call me on the ridiculous stream of words that had just flowed from my mouth. But I was beyond relieved that she hadn't seemed to pick up on my earlier … uh, 'response' to the thoughts I'd had about her hair. Ivy usually didn't miss my biological reactions to her and I was thankful that for once my imbecility seemed to have distracted her enough for my spike of desire to slip past her unnoticed.

My relief didn't last for long.

"Rachel," Ivy began soberly as she swirled her spoon around on her plate in the melted remains of her ice-cream. "What are you doing?"

I looked up at her and found that her eyes were narrowed and focused on me with an intensity that I hadn't seen all night.

So she had picked up on the brief spikes of desire.

FML.

I licked my lips nervously and turned to look around me as if I was checking to see if there was a bubbling cauldron somewhere that I had failed to notice.

"What do you mean?" I asked innocently a few moments later.

"This dinner," she breathed out, "the compliments," she continued referring to the fact that I had managed to compliment her outfit, her perfume, her new boots, and her cat-like agility since we had sat down. "What's it all about?"

This was it, this was my chance to tell her that I realized I'd been a complete boob in the past, but that I'd been de-boobed and was ready to accept my feelings for her _and_ her feelings for me.

This was my chance to tell her that I had been wrong to push her away and that for a while now all I wanted to do was pull her closer to me.

This was my chance to tell her that I loved her and _not_ in a sisterly way, and that if she could find it in her heart to forgive my idiocy that I wanted to love her, with everything that I was and everything that I had, for evermore.

"What's what about?" was what I said however, and then I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. "Can't we just have a nice home-cooked meal together and a quiet evening in catching up without me being up to something?"

Take a good look folks. The creature that stands before you is the sadly common Cowardicelopithicus. These creatures are most commonly seen: turning their heads away from homeless people asking for change, breaking up with their significant others by text message at coffee-shops, and passive aggressively complaining to anyone who will listen about annoying things people they know do instead of actually talking to the person they have a problem with because it would be _uncomfortable_.

"Certainly we can," Ivy responded holding my gaze unwaveringly, "but we don't."

I opened my mouth to protest the statement but thought better of it and closed my mouth.

The truth was that Ivy was right.

We'd had meals together before and often talked while we were eating, but we hadn't sat around the table with a full spread and spent hours just talking for a long time. We had tried at first, but such nights usually ended up with one of us setting the other off causing the meal to come to an abrupt halt. At that point one of us, usually Ivy since I'm the great provoker, would leave the room or the church altogether, and that was a wrap. Eventually we took to having quick meals together before quickly taking off on a run, or to an appointment or to take care of some other daily task in an attempt to avoid the small scale domestic warfare too much time around each other usually led to.

And quiet evenings in with just the two of us, well they'd been as extinct as the dodo for quite some time. When we first moved in together it had been nice to hang out and watch movies or television together, or even to just lie around reading while music played from the stereo system. But as the tension had mounted between us and my responses to Ivy began to torment her vampire instincts more and more, those evenings spent alone together had become a thing of the past. If Ivy and I spent more than half an hour in the living room together it meant that there were other people around to chaperone, it meant that Jenks was flying around or that Keasley had stopped by, or that the pixie children were watching videos or that – more recently – Glenn was there.

Ivy and I were almost never alone together for extended periods of time and if somehow we forgot to be anxious about being alone together and hung around the same place for a while we avoided serious conversation like it could give us syphilis.

"Well," I said slowly, "maybe we should."

"There's a reason we don't," Ivy responded sadly. "Things get … complicated when we do."

"It doesn't have to be complicated," I whispered blinking a few times to try and clear my moistening eyes. "I don't want it to be complicated anymore."

"What we want and what is are often two entirely different things," Ivy replied, her voice cracking just the tiniest bit as she spoke revealing the strong emotions that lay beneath her seemingly calm surface.

"Maybe so," I admitted, acknowledging the fact that in both of our lives what we wanted often had no bearing on how the things actually worked out. "But sometimes … sometimes they're the same," I continued, "They could be the same."

Ivy sucked in a deep breath and looked away from me, the curtain of her dark hair falling between us. It had been a while since I had seen her do that. When we had first moved in together she had often used her hair as a shield against me, but cutting her hair had forced her out of the habit. It seemed that it was returning with her longer hair, but she was out of practice and didn't move quickly enough to hide her rapidly darkening eyes.

"What _is_ this, Rachel?"

She sounded drained, exhausted, as if she were Atlas and the weight of the world was resting on her shoulders. It was a tone that I hadn't heard from her in months, I realized. It was a tone I hadn't heard since I had stopped fantasizing about her biting me while in her presence. When I had first started thinking about being bitten after our encounter in the van, Ivy had been sharp with me, barking out 'stop' in an irritable tone whenever my mind wandered. Near the end however, she had simply sounded fatigued. She had been worn down and had nothing left to fight me with, and it was that defeated and weary tone I had just heard.

I screwed my courage to the sticking place and straightened up in my chair, then firm in purpose I stated, "It's me paying attention, finally."

She kept her face hidden from me, but I continued to stare at the dark curtain of her hair and forged ahead, somehow knowing that if I blew this chance with her I would not get another one.

"I know my timing sucks, really I do," I said scrubbing my face with my palm. "It's taken me far, far too long to figure out how I feel and what I want, but I _have_ figured it out."

Her hands were resting palm down on the table, pressing against the flat surface, tensed, ready to push off and dart out of the room at any moment. The sight made me close my eyes against the tears welling up in them and I had to take a few deep breaths before I was able to reach out and place my hands on top of hers.

"I've thought about this, about how to say it … so many different ways to say it … but I'll be brief and to the point," I said to the dark screen blocking her face.

I wanted to be artful about this, but I'm not an artful person. Besides, even if I had the poetry, I knew that it wasn't the time for it. I was riddled with anxiety and I could feel how tense Ivy's hands were beneath me. She didn't need art from me at that moment, she didn't need poetry. She just needed to know how I felt. She needed to know that I loved her. The similes and metaphors could come later when she was resting contently in my arms.

"I love you," I told her in a voice that shook so badly I almost didn't recognize it as my own. "I want all of you," I declared willing my voice to settle and firm, "everything. And I freely give you all of me."

Ivy's hands jerked under mine and she angled her head even further away from me.

She drew in a deep breath, sounding almost pained.

"Are you …"

"I'm certain," I interjected, knowing instinctively what she was going to ask. "I'm certain," I repeated, my voice rough with emotion. "Ivy …"

I trailed off after saying her name, uncertain what else I could say to convince her that this wasn't a trick or another one of life's disappointments.

Her hands disappeared from beneath mine and I blinked, releasing twin tears from the corners of my eyes wondering if I had finally pushed her too far. But before I could even turn to try and call out to her, I felt her beside me.

I tilted my head up so that I could see her face and blinked again, releasing another stream of tears. She reached out and cupped my face in her warm, strong hand. Her thumb swiped at my cheek clearing away the tears streaming down it. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. I wasn't sure whether she was scenting my emotions or just trying to get a handle on hers, but before I could give it too much thought I felt myself being lifted gently into the air before she settled me down on her lap.

I wanted to say something beautiful as we sat there gazing at each other, but pretty words weren't my thing. I was a woman of action, so I acted.

I brought my hand up to her face and stroked her cheek lightly, reverently, then I leaned forward and brought our lips together, pouring every desperate, violent, tender emotion I felt for her into the kiss. My hands gripped at her tightly, and I could taste the salt of my tears in my mouth as we kissed, but I did not let her go.

Eventually the need for air forced us apart, but not for long. I breathed in just enough to keep my head from spinning, and then my lips were back on Ivy's, drawing a surprised gasp from her before her hands were tangling in my hair and she was kissing me back just as ardently and desperately and passionately as I was kissing her.

When the world stopped spinning and I was able to focus again, Ivy's hands were on my shoulders holding me where I was, her entirely black eyes watching me intensely enough to sear even as they shimmer wetly with tears waiting to be shed.

"Everything?" she asked, and even in my state of distraction I could hear the fear and apprehension in her voice.

"Everything," I confirmed without pause.

Her eyes fluttered shut and the tears that had been shining in them finally slipped down her cheeks. I wrapped my arms around her and drew her into my body, cradling her against me as I pressed my lips to her temple, rocking her as I would a baby.

"I love you Ivy," I whispered into her hair, knowing that even though my voice was muffled she would be able to hear me. "I really, really do. I love you, so much."

She wrapped her arms around me pulling me tightly against her and nuzzled her face against my chest.

"I love you too," she breathed out, warm breath tickling my clavicle in the most delicious and comforting way before she pressed her lips to my skin in a kiss so tender and so sweet I feared it would stop my heart.

"Oh, Ivy," I whispered longingly, stroking her face lightly.

I loved being wrapped up with her, but I desperately wanted to kiss her again. Everything about Ivy oozed sex and having kissed her once before I knew that she was beyond good at it, but our experience in the sanctuary hadn't prepared me for the experience of kissing her when we were both wanted it and were anticipating it.

I took her face in my hands and lifted it. I held her eyes with my own for a moment that was an eternity and then I leaned down and pressed my lips against hers once more, leaving my yearningly sighed words as the last either of us spoke for quite a while.

**To be continued …**


	3. Chapter 3

**Title: **Open Your Eyes

**Author:** Janine

**Fandom:** The Hollows

**Pairing:** Ivy/Rachel

**Rating:** PG

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them.

**Summary:** Ivy's with Glenn and Rachel's just going to have to learn to live with that. Or is she?  
**Note:** This story is a sequel to my fic "Burning". You may want to read/re-read that one first before reading this, but it is not strictly necessary to in order to understand what's happening in this story.

**---**

**PART 3**

I'd never touched a female body so intimately before, but to my relief I found that previous experience wasn't really necessary. Instinct guided my hands to places that made Ivy gasp and moan, and knowledge of my own body let me know what to do with my hands once they found their destination.

"Rachel," Ivy panted.

Instinct had guided my hand under her shirt to cover her breast and knowledge of myself had led me to slip my hand under the material of her bra so that my thumb could brush over the hard peak of her nipple and my fingers could pinch at the plump nub. I had been in the process of discovering just how hard I could pinch without causing her actual discomfort when she panted my name.

"More?" I asked roughly, my thumb and forefinger already squeezing slightly in anticipation of her words.

"No," Ivy breathed out, shuddering slightly beneath me.

I squeezed a little harder, ready and more than willing to move things further along when her words registered with me and my hand stilled. I breathed in deeply trying to calm my racing heart down, and I blinked a few times as I tried to get my mind to focus so that I could make sense of what Ivy had just said.

"Am," I began hesitantly, my eyebrows scrunching together in confusion, "am I hurting you?"

I was almost unable to fathom that I could be, but I had to make sure. The dating guide Ivy had given me so long ago had shown and described living vampires do things with each other and their familiars that were far more 'adventurous' shall we say, than what I was doing to Ivy and they'd sounded like they couldn't get enough of it.

A slow, sensuous smile spread across Ivy's lips at that before she murmured, "No, you're not hurting me," with more than a small touch of amusement in her voice.

I relaxed a little at her response, relieved that I hadn't inadvertently caused her pain, however my relief only last for a second.

"We just need to stop," Ivy continued a moment later, drawing back from me as much as she could with me still sitting in her lap.

"Stop?" I asked not quite able to process the meaning of the word with my hand still on her tit.

"Stop," she repeated using my distraction to reach under her shirt and gently pull my hand away from her breast.

"Okay," I finally breathed out though my body was still humming with desire. "Did I do something wro…?"

"No," Ivy interjected as she held onto the hand she had just taken out of her shirt. "You were doing a lot of things very, very right," she continued, her voice dissolving into a purr for a moment. "If we went on like that for any longer I wouldn't have been able to stop you."

"Ivy," I said lowly, my voice little more than a rasp. "I don't want to stop."

Her eyelids fluttered and a ragged breath was released from her before she opened her eyes again to look at me.

"I know," she said breathing in deeply. Another shudder ran through her body and I knew that she could smell my desire for her, that she could tell how badly I wanted not to stop. "But I do," she continued, tightening her hold on me as if she knew that my immediate response to her words would be to try and pull away. "I'm dating Matthew," she sighed a moment later, resting her forehead on my shoulder.

"Matth …" I started before I realized that she was talking about Glenn. "Glenn," I breathed out stupidly, having actually forgotten about his existence for most of the night, though as I planned my seduction of Ivy I had simply been willing myself not to think about how I was trying to steal his girlfriend from him. "Right," I said drawing the word out uncomfortably before I tried to move off of her lap again.

"Rachel, don't. Please," she said though she loosened her hold on me enough that I could break free if I really wanted to.

"I'm feeling fidgety," I admitted, squirming in her lap a little though I didn't actually move.

'Panicky' and 'uncomfortable' were two other adjectives that I could have used to describe the jittery feelings coursing through me, but 'fidgety' was the least embarrassing.

"I don't mind if you squirm," Ivy breathed out, her relief that I was still sitting in her lap clear in her voice. "Just stay."

"Okay," I murmured even though the idea of darting was still spinning around my head.

I couldn't help it really. The mention of Glenn had thrown me for a loop. I'd put him out of my mind as much as I could for the past few days since I knew that trying to win Ivy meant that I would end up screwing him over. But now that Ivy had brought him up, I couldn't pretend that my actions weren't selfish and hurtful and it was making me really anxious.

I wanted to get up. I wanted to pace. I wanted to move. But Ivy was asking me to stay, and so I would. I could do that for her. After all that she had done for me, I could do that for her.

"Sorry," I whispered still jittering though less so.

"It's okay," Ivy said gently as she stroked my thigh soothingly. "You know you don't have to worry, don't you?" she continued in the same gentle way a second later.

"Worry?" I asked avoiding her gaze.

I was acting as if I had no idea what she was talking about, but the way my gut clenched made me suspect that Ivy was right. In fact, as my stomach clenched again in an even more painful and unpleasant way, I was sure that part of my fidgety, panicky, uncomfortableness came from the fact that I _was_ worried. I was afraid that now that Ivy had brought up Glenn's name she would remember how super-awesome-fun the dates they had together were and she would think twice about dating my shunned, broke, slower-than-an-octogenarian-driving-on-a-Sunday ass.

Because, and it really did hurt to admit this to myself, on paper Glenn was far superior to me in ever way but gingerosity. Glenn was classically handsome and gainfully employed, and if that wasn't bad enough, he had figured out that he wanted to date Ivy within a few weeks of really getting to know her while it had taken me five years to figure it out. And, on top of all that he didn't have a black aura, or demon blood, or an adrenaline addiction, there were no demons breaking into his house and he had no fear of getting bitten by and sharing blood with someone he cared about.

And I … well, I was … I was very, very ginger. So, yeah, I suppose I was a little worried.

"I'm going to break up with him," Ivy said saving me from my torturous thoughts. "I like him Rachel, but I _love _you," she continued, her words finally getting me to settle down in her lap. "I just need to break up with him face-to-face before we can go any further. That's why I asked you to stop."

"Face-to-face?" I asked as my brain twirled, trying to compute all of the implications of her statement.

"Yes, face-to-face. He deserves that," Ivy responded.

"But you said he's gone for three days," I pointed out.

If she waited to break up with him in person it would mean that we would have to wait three days before we could make love to each other, and the thought nearly made me hyperventilate. I'm not a crazed horn-dog by any stretch of the imagination and I've gone far, far, sadly far, longer than three days without touching someone else's nude body, but Ivy and I had _just_ gotten together. I had _just_ gotten my first touch of her breasts, _just_ experienced the wonder of her lips on mine, had _just_ heard her moan in intimate pleasure, and I wanted more of her. I wanted to touch her naked body until my hands stopped working and the thought of not being able to love her fully for three whole days made me want to cry. I'm not joking. My eyes started to burn as they welled up with unshed tears.

"I know," she breathed out before she sighed softly and glanced away from me. "But he's been a good friend to me, Rachel and I'd like for him not to completely hate my guts after this. I can't break up with him over the phone."

I breathed in and out deeply as the words left her lips, but lifted my hand to stroke her cheek to take any thing out of my exhalation. My desire to touch her and make love to her didn't allow me to be thrilled about her statement, but I did understand it. Glenn was a good guy, and he deserved better than the situation we all found ourselves in allowed for. My glacially slow self-realization process had ensured that Glenn would be hurt, but if we could lessen the sting of the blow then we owed that to him – no matter how horny we were.

"Okay," I sighed, trailing my fingers down her neck. "Okay," I repeated, letting out a little breath and finally relaxing back into her.

Ivy's sense of honor was one of the things I loved and respected most about her and I had learned the dangers of trying to make her change a fundamental part of who she was the hard way.

It was not a mistake that I wanted to repeat.

I knew that I could have convinced her to give in to my desires and hers, but I also knew that would ultimately do more harm than good. I was pretty good at rationalizing away my less than noble actions, but Ivy didn't operate the same as I did. What I could justify and sweep under the carpet of my conscience would plague and torture Ivy. It was not as easy for her to forgive herself her faults as it was for me to forgive myself mine and I had already put her through more than enough emotional turmoil.

"You're upset," Ivy whispered, her body tensing beneath me.

"I'm not upset," I said immediately, stopping her before she could begin to beat herself up for being a good person and doing the right thing. "I like that you're honorable," I continued before brushing my lips across her forehead. "I'm just," I shifted on her lap uncomfortably, my thighs momentarily squeezing together as my cheeks flushed, "you know," I concluded not wanting to have to say it out loud.

"Believe me, I know," Ivy said in a voice that was rough with arrested desire.

A thin ring of brown had returned to her eyes as she spoke but they were still mostly inky and the desire that was still thrumming through her burned deeply in her eyes. Seeing my own longing mirrored in Ivy's eyes made me feel better about having to stop, and though my body was still strumming with arousal I felt a sense of peace and contentment when I slipped off of her lap.

"So," I drawled, trying to gather by wits about me and move back into date-mode after having been in 'gotta-get-some, gotta-get-some-now' mode for the last twenty minutes. "I guess we're at the 'quiet evening in' part of the night."

Ivy leaned back in her chair like a sleepy jungle cat, though her still dark eyes were alert as they focused on me.

"What did you have in mind?" she asked in a way that really, really, really made me wish I could suggest naked twister in her bed without tarnishing her honor.

"DVDs," I responded.

Lucky for me I had thought that my seduction of Ivy would take longer than it had which meant that I already had a series of activities planned. This meant that I didn't have to worry about formulating a plan for how to spend the rest of the evening and that was a good thing because my brain was largely occupied trying to banish the visuals of playing naked twister with Ivy from my mind.

"I picked up some we can choose from. And not one of them was made by Disney or Pixar," I continued smiling.

Jenks' children owned the television most nights and I imagined that Ivy was longing to watch something that didn't have cartoon characters as much as I was.

"Sold," Ivy declared.

She rose from her chair gracefully and then chivalrously held her hand out to me. I gratefully accepted and then hand-in-hand we made our way towards the living room to begin our quiet evening in.

**To be continued …**


	4. Chapter 4

**Title: **Open Your Eyes

**Author:** Janine

**Fandom:** The Hollows

**Pairing:** Ivy/Rachel

**Rating:** PG

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them.

**Chapter Summary:** Ivy's been gone for the day and Rachel's looking forward to some alone time with her, but things don't go exactly as Rachel hopes.

**---**

**PART 4**

When I awoke the next morning Ivy was gone, but there was coffee in the pot waiting for me and there were fresh fruits and sweet rolls laid out on the center island that hadn't been there the night before.

Ivy had been a busy girl.

A large smile spread across my face as I walked further into the kitchen, the thoughtfulness of her actions filling me with warmth. I wished desperately that Ivy had been around so that I could have properly thanked her for the meal ... with my lips, but since she'd already left to meet Erica I decided I'd show my appreciation for her actions by gobbling down the food she'd left out.

I found my mind constantly on Ivy as I ate breakfast.

Standing at the island I had a perfect view of the kitchen table and the chair that Ivy had pulled me into her lap the night before and I kept on replaying those delicious moments with her in my head over and over again. I knew that her scent had long since faded from the room, but as I stood there with my eyes closed remembering our encounter I swore that I could smell her intoxicating vampire incense still swirling around me. Her scent was so distinct in fact that I actually opened my eyes at one point, expecting to see her standing before me, but the room was disappointingly empty when I did.

I turned my head to the side and bashfully pressed my nose into my shoulder. I suddenly felt very silly about standing around the kitchen sniffing the air like a bloodhound for a hint of Ivy's scent, but it was Ivy's scent and therefore irresistible and I couldn't stop myself from wanting more.

I breathed in again and when I did my eyes widened.

The scent was even more powerful than it had been a moment before and I suddenly realized that I was the source of it!

I moaned softly and inhaled again taking her incense in, a little shiver running through me as I did. I had changed into my pyjamas the night before between the first and second DVD, and had spent the next few hour wrapped up in Ivy's arms, which was apparently long enough for her scent to have worked its way into the material of pyjamas.

It was an unexpected development, but definitely a pleasant one, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that really liked the idea of carrying a little of Ivy around with me all the time.

"What on Tink's green earth are you doing?" Jenks asked flying into the room.

I blushed deeply as I realized how idiotic I must have looked sniffing my own shirt and quickly turned my head away from my shoulder.

"Nothing," I muttered tearing off a piece of the sweet roll in my hand and shoving it into my mouth. "Eating breakfast," I muttered around the bread. "What do you want?"

Jenks didn't answer me right away. Instead he just hovered in the air staring at me as his dragonfly wings beat a mile a minute behind him. The kitchen was uncomfortably silent for a while as he stared at me and I was getting so uncomfortable that I was about to blurt something out just to end the silence, but thankfully before I could Jenks flew towards me with his little pixie eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"Why do you smell like Ivy?" he asked in a surprisingly aggressively tone of voice.

"I always smell like Ivy," I responded, nonchalantly reaching for my coffee mug. It was true enough actually, even though a few minutes before I'd been surprised to find her scent on me.

Living with Ivy meant that her scent was always on me, it was just that normally it was so faint that my witch nose couldn't detect it. That dusting of scent which I couldn't smell was clear to vamps and other Inderland species however, and having it on me had actually saved my life the first year we lived together. That had been the beginning of the stage in my life where everyone seemed to want to kill me – a stage I was unfortunately still stuck in – and smelling like Ivy had warned the unscrupulous bastards that wanted to kill me that if they tried a very pissed off Tamwood vampire was going to come after them and make them hurt.

Jenks wasn't talking about the residual scent that was always on me however, and I knew it. His pixie nose was even more sensitive than a vampire's and he was more than used to faint hint of Ivy on me. What caught his attention, as it had caught mine, was how much more strongly Ivy's incense was clinging to me presently, and _that's_ what he wanted to know about.

"That's not what I mean witch, and you know it," Jenks replied buzzing around my head. "Just how exactly did you make up with her last night?" he asked zooming in front of my face in an incredibly unpleasant and disconcerting way.

I'd asked Jenks to make himself scarce while I was preparing dinner the night before. I'd told him that I had been acting like a jackass over the past week, as usual, and that I wanted to make it up to Ivy, which was true. I'd just left out the part where I wanted to get her naked and in my bed while I was talking to him.

"Rache," he said warningly when I didn't respond to him. "Oh, for the love of Tink, what did you do to her?" Jenks asked in an exasperated tone, his little head darting around the room as if he had just realized that Ivy wasn't in the church. "You said you were going to stop messing with her, Rachel."

I blinked at the use of my full name. Jenks never used my full name unless he was really pissed at me.

"She's been through enough, Rachel," there was my full name again. "She doesn't need you playing with her. Did you scare her off?"

I wanted to get mad at Jenks and tell him that he could shove his accusations so far up his ass he choked on them, but I held my tongue. The truth was that he had precedent for assuming I'd acted like a douche the night before. More than once in the aftermath of one of my encounters with Ivy, she had abandoned the church for long stretches of time, needing to be away from me to get her shields back in place. And on more than one occasion when that had happened after she had returned Jenks had spent hours with her trying to reassure her and ease her anxiety. He knew better than I did how my indecision and sometimes thoughtless behaviour had hurt Ivy in the past and he was just looking out for her by accosting me.

"I didn't scare her off," I told him not quite able to keep all the irritation I was feeling out of my voice even though I understood why he was acting the way he was. "She's out with Erica," I informed him.

I didn't mean to, but as I mentioned Erica's name I smiled. Ivy loved her sister dearly and was adorably protective of her. They didn't get to spend as much time together presently as they had in the past when Ivy lived at home, but being in Erica's life was one of Ivy's top priorities and she always made time to see the teenager. She was a really good big sister and that kind of made me swoon.

Jenks' eyes narrowed as he saw the dreamy expression on my face.

"Why do you smell like her?" he asked again.

"Because I spent most of last night cuddling with her on the couch, okay," I announced peevishly knowing that he was going to realize what was going on between Ivy and I sooner rather than later.

With his habit of flying into rooms unannounced and his keen sense of smell there wasn't much that we could keep secret from him. It was why he was such a great asset for a runner, and so irritating to have as a housemate.

"And before you rip me a new one," I continued holding my hand when I saw his lips part to speak, "I'm not toying with her or being a destructively obtuse ass. I know what I'm doing, okay?"

Jenks was unmoved by my speech, probably because he knew what awful proceedings usually followed me stating that I knew what I was doing.

"And what exactly _are_ you doing, witch?" he asked folding his arms across his chest as her peered at me.

"Dating," I responded proudly. "Or at least we will be once Ivy officially breaks things off with Glenn," I continued rushing through the last part because it still kind of made me feel like a jerk.

"Dating?" Jenks repeated dubiously.

"Yes, dating," I confirmed glowering at him.

"You do know what that means don't you?" he asked staring at me keenly.

I met his gaze steadily.

"I know what it means," I told him. "I didn't rush into this Jenks, I thought about it before I told her how I feel."

I sighed softly and moved over to the table so that I could sit down.

"Honestly, the blood balance still makes me a little uneasy, but I'll get over it. I mean, I think we just need to do it right and I'll feel better about it," I continued knowing that the restrictions I'd put on Ivy the other times she had bitten me had made the process much more dangerous and traumatizing for both of us than it should have been. "I love her Jenks, I want to touch her and I definitely want her to touch me. I told her I'd give her everything and I meant it. Nobody's playing games and nobody's holding back, so just say 'congrats' already and stop acting like an overbearing father."

"I am an overbearing father," Jenks grumbled though his tone and posture were less hostile than they had been before.

"But you're not Ivy's," I responded. "You're her friend and mine, so be happy for us."

Jenks buzzed around silently with his fist tucked under his chin for a few seconds and then he focused his gaze on me again.

"Is this for real?" he asked levelling me with another intense gaze.

"Yeah, it's as real as it gets." There was no doubt or hesitation in my voice when I spoke and upon hearing my response Jenks sighed in relief and happy coloured pixie dust began to rain down.

"Well, it's about damn time!"

---

The rest of the afternoon passed in a bit of a blur. I used the fact that I had the church to myself to catch up on some spelling I'd gotten behind on. I had to do a lot more of it now that I was shunned and nobody would sell to me. It was tedious work, but it was necessary, so I got to it. It was a slow going though because I was constantly distracted by thoughts of Ivy and how we had spent the previous evening, not to mention the ideas I was dreaming up for how we could spend that evening.

When the door to the church opened just after sundown I nearly cheered out loud. Thinking about her so much had made me miss her desperately and I wanted to lay my eyes on her. I wanted her lips on mine and my hands on her body. I wanted to get her scent all over me again. I wanted her slim arms wrapped around me, holding me gently as her warmth soaked into me.

I couldn't wait to be alone with her.

I heard footsteps approaching and smiled to myself. Ivy was making noise which meant that she knew where I was and was trying not to startle me. She was so considerate, I thought smiling softly. I was going to have to show her how much I appreciated it ... with my lips.

"Rachel!"

I jumped slightly at the sound of my name being hollered from the doorway.

That was not Ivy's voice.

That was ...

"Erica?" I squeaked turning around just in time to see the teenager's slim body streaking quickly towards me.

And then I was being wrapped in powerful arms as she flung herself around me and hugged me tightly. Too tightly, I discovered as air whooshed out of my lungs and my eyes bulged out slightly.

God, she was strong.

Erica was not as strong as Ivy, but she was still more than strong enough to do some serious damage without even realizing it. Ivy had trained extensively in martial arts and had complete control over her body. Erica however, was still learning a lot about controlling her vampire nature around non-vampires, and apparently she had a bit more training to do in regards to regulating her strength because she was slowly crushing the life out of me.

I looked behind Erica to meet Ivy's eyes and I must have looked a bit panicked because Ivy seemed to be seconds away from breaking out laughing. I narrowed my eyes at her over Erica's shoulder and she smirked at me amusedly before she inclined her head slightly and pushed off of the wall she had been resting against.

"She can't breathe," Ivy murmured softly placing a gently restraining hand on Erica's shoulder.

"What?" Erica asked distractedly. "Oh!" she exclaimed as Ivy's words and my reddening face finally registered with her. "Sorry," she murmured sheepishly as she drew her arms from around me.

"It's okay," I wheezed when she let go.

Ivy's eyes crinkled in amusement at my choked response and if she hadn't looked so damn cute I would have smacked her.

"Are you surprised to see me?" Erica asked in her infectiously bubbly way.

"Pleasantly so," I responded meaning it completely. Erica was tons of fun to be around, even though she never shut up. She was the opposite of Ivy in many ways, which only made it more precious that they got on so well.

Erica smiled brightly upon hearing that, and I nodded to myself congratulating myself on the brownie points I was no doubt earning with Ivy for being so delightful and wonderful with her little sister.

My smug self-congratulations didn't last long however.

"See V, I told you she wouldn't mind," Erica said happily as she turned to face her sister.

"Mind what?" I asked a little hesitantly suddenly wondering why Erica _was_ at the church.

Erica turned to me and fixed me with a delighted smile that sent a shiver of fear through me.

"Sleepover!" she declared wrapping one around my shoulder and the other around Ivy's.

I smiled weakly at her and lifted my fist into the air trying to seem excited when really all I wanted to do was cry.

"It's going to be so much fun," Erica continued.

For her maybe, I thought dourly. I liked Erica and all, but her timing sucked. A month before this or a month after I would have been all over a sleepover party, but I really, really, really wanted to be wearing Ivy's lips on my face and that was not going to happen with Erica reading our horoscopes to us all night.

"We can invite the pixies and I know tons of fun games we can play. I was at a sleepover at my friend Caitlin's house – you don't know her, she has a cat. Anyway, at the sleepover we ..."

The words kept coming and I looked over at Ivy, my eyes wide as the barge of words continued to crash against me. Ivy took my hand slyly behind Erica's back as the teen began to head towards the living room and leaned towards me, pressing her lips to my ear so that Erica wouldn't hear her.

"Sorry," she murmured softly, her warmth of her breath sending a little shiver through me. "I know you probably had ... plans," she drawled knowingly, "but she gave me the kitten face. I can't resist the kitten face," she said apologetically.

I sighed forlornly. Ivy was such a good big sister.

"Ooh, ooh!" Erica exclaimed spinning around to face us.

"Yes?" Ivy drawled casually slipping her hand out of mine as she turned her full attention to her sister.

"Can I pick which side of the bed I sleep on?" Erica asked clasping her hands together excitedly.

I'm ashamed to say that flare of jealously flashed through me as I realized that Erica was going to get to spend the night in Ivy's bed before I was. The response wasn't rational, but the situation was just so damn unfair. A night in Ivy's bed would be wasted on Erica, whereas I would have made the most of the opportunity that was for sure.

"No way," Ivy said shaking her head at the girl.

"Please," Erica pleaded.

Ivy pretended to think about it for a moment then shook her head again and said, "Nah."

"Oh, come on. Please," Erica said drawing the word out extra long.

"Okay," Ivy said and Erica smiled and rushed her, hugging her tightly.

Ivy looked over her sister's head towards me at that and I couldn't help but smile. They were pretty precious together.

"So," I said clapping my hands together and turning to face Erica. "What's the first thing we should do?"

"Grocery shopping," Erica declared immediately.

I looked at her uncertainly and she smiled.

"We need to buy snacks," she informed me.

"Ah," I responded nodding my head sagely, "Of course."

"We need to get some orange Fanta, and we need wasabi peas, and we need nachos, and we need ..." Erica began thoughtfully as she headed towards the door.

"Thank you," Ivy murmured wrapping her arm around my shoulder and pulling me against her gently as Erica continued towards the front door. "She's been feeling a bit lonely at home. This'll mean a lot to her," Ivy continued pressing her lips to my temple softly.

I felt a little pang in my heart as I looked at Erica and thought about how difficult it must be living with an undead mother, and father who was so drained from meeting his wife's needs that he had very little energy for much else. I couldn't blame the kid for wanting a night off.

"It's fine," I told Ivy, leaning into her a little. "Actually, it'll be nice. I've never been to a sleepover before," I admitted a little shyly.

I'd been in and out of the hospital for most of my childhood because of Rosewood-Syndrome, and because of that I'd never really gone to school regularly or had a chance to make friends in same way other kids had. Of course I'd had friends from the hospital and camp, but my camp friends I only saw at camp, and my friends from the hospital were sick like me and things like sleepover parties weren't really in the cards for us. By the time I had 'miraculously' recovered from my illness I was ready for High School and the kids that I had spent my time with had been over sleepover parties by then.

Ivy's eyes widened in surprise as she glanced over at me, but then I saw a spark of understanding in her eyes and the expression on her face faded to be replaced with a warm smile.

"Well," she pronounced, "I promise you we'll make it a night to remember."

**To be continued …**


	5. Chapter 5

**Title: **Open Your Eyes

**Author:** Janine

**Fandom:** The Hollows

**Pairing:** Ivy/Rachel

**Rating:** PG

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them.

**Chapter Summary:** Rachel's finding it hard to stay away from Ivy, even though she knows that it's for the best.

**---**

**PART 5**

The Next Night

I stood outside of Ivy's bedroom, paralyzed with indecision. We'd only said goodnight to each other a half hour before but I already missed her company. We'd agreed that it would be wisest to sleep separately until Ivy was officially single, and in theory it was a very sound, very mature, very sensible course of action to take, but in reality it sucked buttered elephants nuts. After all, I was her girlfriend (kinda, sorta, almost, pending her inevitable break up with Glenn) and I didn't see why I should feel guilty about wanting to be near her but I did (kinda, sorta, almost, though probably not enough to actually stay away from her) because we'd promised.

I sighed deeply and turned my head around to look at my open bedroom door just down the hall. I knew I should go back there and try to sleep, even if I had to stick my hand in my underwear for an hour to relieve enough tension to actually drift off to dreamland. But knowing that I should do something and actually doing that something were two entirely different things. Two entirely different things that I'd had a life long problem merging together.

The truth was I did not want to go back to my bed alone. I wanted to feel Ivy's body again me. I wanted the warmth of it to seep into me, lulling me into a peaceful sleep. I wanted to smell her all around me, and feel the faint pulsing of her heart beneath her chest. I also wanted her naked and sweating beneath me, I'm not going to lie about that, but we were both grown women and I figured that we should have been able to sleep in the same bed without tearing each others clothes off and ravishing each other – though that would have been nice.

_To barge in, or not to barge in: that is the question_, I thought sucking in another deep breath before releasing it slowly.

I thought of Ivy inside, draped in black silk, her perfect alabaster skin shining against its dark surroundings like a beacon of hope in the dead of night. I thought about the deliciously short nightgown she was surely wearing and the expanse of pale, smooth, toned thigh that it would reveal, and how heavenly it would feel to have those legs brushing against mine as I we lay wrapped up together. I remembered the absolutely adorable look she'd had on her face when she'd woken up after the nap we had taken together on the couch that afternoon after Erica had departed and I could picture clearly the way she had blinked slowly and licked her lips before deciding she didn't really want to wake and promptly flopped back down against the pillow. I remembered the way I had kissed her to wakefulness and the way she had purred when our lips finally parted and how absolutely perfect it had all felt.

I reached for the door knob and turned it.

The answer was always going to be to barge in. The idea of sleeping beside Ivy was too tempting to ignore and coupled with the idea of waking up with her in the afternoon it was entirely too tantalizing to pass up.

Her bedroom was dark, really, really, dark. Under different circumstances I might have found the completeness of the darkness to be unnerving at the least, but as the light from the hallway momentarily illuminated Ivy's prone form, I thought that it was kind of adorable.

She was such a _vampire_ sometimes.

In typical Ivy fashion the room was neat, almost too neat, but I couldn't complain since it meant I had an obstacle free path to Ivy's bed.

Closing the door behind me and engulfing the room in darkness once more, I stooped and stuck my hand out in front of me so that I would be able to feel the mattress when I approached it, then I started off in the direction of her bed.

A few moments later my hand connected with the end of the bed and I was able to follow the edge along to the side of the bed. Once there, I carefully lifted up the thin silk sheet, and slipped onto the mattress beside Ivy.

"Hello."

My heart leaped into my chest as Ivy's voice filled the room and I pressed my hand to my rapidly beating heart. Rather dourly, I realized that she'd probably been aware of me the moment I paused outside of her bedroom door and had been laying in wait for me.

She was such a _vampire_ sometimes.

"Hello," I grumbled, however despite my tone I proceeded to shift on the bed towards the sound of her voice until I my hand connected with her hip.

"What are you doing?" Ivy asked with a combination of amusement and trepidation that only she could get in her voice and even then only when she was talking to me.

"Spooning," I responded before I slipped my arm around her waist and tried unsuccessfully to tug her into my body.

"Rachel," she sighed, her hand moving to cover mine and stroking it lightly for a moment before she moved it from around her. "Go back to your room."

I drew my hand back into my body but made no move to draw away from her.

I didn't want to go back to my room.

"I don't want to go back to my room," I responded only sounding the tiniest bit whiney. "I want to stay with you. I want to be near you," I continued, my voice dropping intimately as I spoke. "Don't you want to be near me?"

It was a low blow, but I wasn't above guilt-tripping her if I meant I could stay in her bed.

"You know I do," Ivy said sounding a little disgruntled. "It's just not a good idea. We've talked about this," she continued though her voice had gentled a little.

I inched a little closer to her and placed my hand on her hip, though I did not try to restrict her by wrapping my arm around her this time.

"We talked about waiting to make love," I breathed out feeling her body tremble slightly as my warm breath caressed her skin. "Waiting doesn't mean that we have to be in separate beds, in separate rooms though," I continued stroking her taut stomach lightly with my fingers. "I'm not here to steal your virtue in the dead of night," I went on, relaxing when her body shook and I heard a faint chuckle fall from her lips. "I just want to sleep beside you. I promise I'll be chaste as a nun."

Ivy breathed in and out slowly, and then she shifted on the mattress until we were face to face. I could barely make out her features but I knew that she could see me clearly.

"Rachel," she sighed softly, lightly running her fingers up my bare arms in a way that made me shiver, "I want that too but … it'll be too much. If you stay here," she sighed again and I felt her body press against mine more firmly, "if you stay here," she repeated, her voice low and silky, "I won't be able to keep my hands off of you."

I wanted to tell her that I didn't want her to keep her hands off of me, but I knew what a jerk it would make me sound like. I really did understand why she wanted to wait, I just had to remind myself of it sometimes – okay, a lot of the time – when she was so close to me that I could practically taste her.

"You've never just slept in the same bed as someone you liked without ravishing them within an inch of their life?" I inquired more than a little morosely.

"You're not just 'someone I like'," Ivy responded quietly, and even in the darkness I could see her head dip down as if she couldn't bear to look at me while admitting her weaknesses. "I _love_ you. It makes it harder to control … to manage …" she finished softly, directing the last of her words to the mattress before her voice trailed off all together.

Oh my god, did I feel like an ass; a giant, red, bulbous, shining, baboon ass.

"Hey," I said softly, slipping my hand under her chin so that I could tilt her head up. She resisted, and I wanted to punch myself in the face for making her feel badly about loving me. "It's okay," I whispered, blinking rapidly as tears welled up in my eyes. "Really," I breathed out, deciding that if she wouldn't come to me I would go to her.

I slid down on the mattress slightly until our faces were about even again and even though she was still trying to hide her face from me I leaned forward and kissed her softly, again, and again, until finally her body relaxed and she returned my kisses with some of her own.

"I'll go back to my room," I whispered when we pulled apart, "and I'm completely happy and not the least bit upset about it, at all. To think otherwise would be madness," I added, hoping to make her smile, relief washing over me a second later when a small chuckle emerged from her throat. "I love you too," I murmured cupping her cheek in my hand. "I didn't mean to upset you," I said apologetically before pressing another brief kiss to her lips.

Ivy released a short breath out through her nostrils and then angled her head back so that it was resting against the pillow again.

"I know you didn't. He'll be back tomorrow," she murmured a little distractedly, "today," she amended no doubt having glanced at the clock on the wall that my witch eyes were too dull to see. "I'll talk to him as soon as I can."

I shifted up on the bed as well and tentatively rested my head on her chest over her heart. I had told her that I would leave, but I wasn't quite ready to go yet. My body was tense for a few seconds after I lay my head down upon her breast, but soon I realized that she was going to allow the contact and relaxed against her.

"You don't have to rush," I said even though I hoped with every fiber of my being that she would. "If you want to wait until he's had a chance to settle back in, I'll understand. I don't want to pressure you."

"You're not," Ivy said bringing her hand up to my head and running her fingers lightly through my hair. "This is going to be difficult whenever I do it," she sighed, letting her fingers fall away from me. "I'd rather get it over with."

I made a faint sound of agreement in my throat but I didn't verbally respond. Ivy didn't need me telling her I understand what she was feeling when I didn't. Glenn was my friend, but he was something more than that to Ivy and she was going to have to hurt him when the sun came up. I didn't understand exactly how she was feeling at that moment and I didn't want to cheapen her feelings by pretending that I did.

"Should I go?" I asked a few minutes later.

My eyes were starting to droop closed and my breath was evening out and I knew that if I didn't leave soon I was going to fall asleep on Ivy to the steady sound of her heart beating.

Ivy was still and silent beside me, even her chest stopped moving as if she were holding her breath and I knew that she was thinking very seriously about my question.

"No," she breathed out finally, a rush of air flowing from her as the word fell from her lips. "Stay. I want you to stay," she continued, her voice gaining strength as she spoke. Her hand moved to my hair again and her fingers began to lightly comb through the curly locks. "Go to sleep."

"What about …"

"If," she began cutting off my question before she paused to gather her thoughts. "If it's too much, I'll carry you back to your room. But … I want to try. I want to be near you."

I thought about protesting, about volunteering to go back to my room anyway but something in Ivy's tone stopped me. When I had first proposed spending the night her voice had been hesitant and perhaps even a little afraid. She didn't sound like that anymore though. This time when she spoke she sounded … determined. She had made up her mind and that was going to be that. It reminded me of the way she used to talk about abstaining from blood, and the absolute rigidity with which she had held onto her convictions until the constant stress of living with me had forced to her to start practicing again. I knew it still pained her that she had to give up her years long fast and I hoped that this time I could help strengthen her instead of weakening her.

I would be as chaste as I promised. I would be as pure as the driven snow. There could be a show on the Disney Channel about me. I would think only of the comforting sound of her heart and not of the tantalizing swell of her breast just below it. I would close my eyes and I _would_ go to sleep. I would not caress her stomach, or tease her arms with my fingers, or do anything else that would stir up passions we both had promised not to indulge in until things with Glenn had been settled.

I would behave and in the afternoon I would wake up in Ivy's arms and it would be good. She would be happy that she had overcome her fears and overcome her instincts and I would be happy because she was happy and Hollywood films had taught me that's what love and relationships were all about.

"Okay," I whispered, snuggling against her but making sure to avoid any hot zones. "But if you find out I snore, you're still stuck with me."

Ivy laughed at that, and I felt myself smile, quite pleased with my accomplishment.

"You do," Ivy said fondly, her arms squeezing me a little tighter for a moment.

"Oh," I said a little alarmed. That was supposed to haven been a joke.

"I think it's cute," Ivy whispered reassuringly, no doubt having picked up on the momentary uncertainty in my voice.

"Do you really?" I asked.

"Uh huh," Ivy murmured.

"Do you find it cute enough to listen to for the next hundred and thirty years?" I inquired.

"Definitely," Ivy responded without a hint of doubt before she buried her nose in my hair.

"Fine, I'll spend the night," I declared as if I hadn't been the one creeping into her bedroom.

"Oh, thanks so much," Ivy responded dryly and I could picture her rolling her eyes at me.

"You're welcome," I replied through a yawn. "'Night," I said yawning again.

"Goodnight," she breathed out, and as my eyes closed I could picture the smile I knew she was wearing and my own lips curved up as my breathing began to even out and I drifted into sleep's gentle embrace.

**To be continued …**


	6. Chapter 6

**Title: **Open Your Eyes

**Author:** Janine

**Fandom:** The Hollows

**Pairing:** Ivy/Rachel

**Rating:** PG

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them.

**Chapter Summary:** Rachel's finding it hard to stay away from Ivy, even though she knows that it's for the best.

**---**

**PART 6**

I took a leisurely shower the next morning in Ivy's spacious bathroom before finally returning to my room to dress for the day. My hopes of waking up in her arms from the night before had been dashed, but spending the night with her had left me feeling content and relaxed which lessened the disappointment of not seeing her as soon I awoke.

As I pulled on a pair of artfully ripped jeans and a faded ironic t-shirt, I could hear the faint sound of music filtering down the hallway from the kitchen. I knew it was Ivy who was puttering around at the back of the church from the music playing. I couldn't hear it well enough to tell who the artist was, but the strings and piano I could make out clearly identified it as jazz, and that was Ivy's preferred genre. _Smooth, sensuous and sophisticated_, I thought, _just like Ivy_.

In my bare feet I padded my way into the kitchen as quietly as I could hoping to sneak up on Ivy even though the sensible part of me knew that it was an impossible task. She could have had Death Metal blaring at top volume while the blender was going and she still would have been able to hear me coming. Luckily for me my sensible part is very, very small and rarely stops me from doing anything that I want to.

Ivy was at the island with her back to the door pouring a glass of orange juice when I made it to the kitchen. She was dressed in a form-fitting tank top and a deliciously tight pair of black jeans. She was six feet of sun-drenched sin and all I wanted to do was walk up behind her and squeeze that perfect ass until my hands went numb and fell off.

So that's exactly what I did.

"Hello," Ivy purred, drawing the word out luxuriously as I pressed my lips to her bare shoulders, my hands cradling and massaging her ass as I did.

"Hey you," I murmured, humming in delight as she leaned back into me allowing me to feel that heavenly body of hers from head to toe.

I was so captivated by the sensation of having Ivy in my arms in fact, that I missed the sparkling dust raining down on me from above.

"Good afternoon to you to, Rache. Nice of you to finally get up," Jenks sassed from somewhere over my head.

I sighed pitifully. I should have known he was flying around somewhere, just waiting to mock me about something.

"Now if you're finished molesting Sweet-cheeks over there, do you think we could actually have breakfast? Your snuggle-muffin promised me peanut butter."

"Jenks has been … keeping me company," Ivy related as I stepped back from her, and from her less than amused tone of voice I knew that 'keeping her company' more likely meant that Jenks had been teasing her all morning about the fact that I had slept in her bed.

After his initial verbal accosting of me he had warmed up to the idea of Ivy and I being together and he'd had a field day with us after Erica left, cracking jokes left, right and center, at the expense of our burgeoning new relationship. He had been, in a word, _charming_.

"Keep your sarcasm to yourself vampire strumpet. Just give me my peanut butter and I'll leave, then Rachel can give you …"

Ivy swiped her hand at him cutting off whatever it was he was going to say next, though it wasn't really hard to guess the nature of what had been about to come out of his mouth. Like I said, he had been absolutely charming.

"You've been busy," I said ignoring Jenks as I made my way over to the coffee pot.

There were chopped fruits on the counter, as well as toast, bacon, eggs for Ivy, pancakes for me, and a bowl with strawberries and yogurt mixed together. It was a nice brunch spread and I felt my stomach growl as I poured myself a large mug of coffee.

"Work up an appetite last night, did we Rache?" Jenks laughed, fluttering above my head, his pixie speed allowing him to easy dodge my hand when I lifted it up to swat at him.

He had to watch himself around Ivy. She was quick enough that she could catch him. I, on the other hand, with my slow witch reflexes was simply an amusement to him.

"Ivy," I drawled, spinning around to face her. "Give the bug some peanut butter so he'll go away."

Jenks placed his hand over his heart as if he had been mortally wounded and pretended to fall out of the air before he darted up again and flew over to Ivy expectantly.

Ivy already had a thimble sitting nearby and dipped it into the tub of peanut butter resting on the counter until it was full. She held the thimble out to Jenks and then just as he was about to take it, she pulled it back.

Jenks took up in the air dusting angry red clouds everywhere, but Ivy remained firm, simply staring at him until he flew closer to her and calmed down.

I saw her lips move and knew that she was talking, but her voice was too low for me to pick up what she was saying. Jenks was quiet as she spoke, and then he hovered in the air, his tiny fist pillowed thoughtfully under his chin before he nodded his head and held out his hand.

Ivy stared at him for a second longer, and then she placed the thimble of peanut butter in his palm.

Once he had his peanut butter in hand, Jenks flew high into the air, far out of even Ivy's reach.

"Well, a pixie knows when he's not wanted," Jenks began in a humorously wounded tone of voice.

I smirked. Jenks certainly knew when he wasn't wanted and that was usually when he wanted to stick around the most.

"Enjoy the rest of your afternoon ladies. And for the love of Tink, if you absolutely must touch each others goodies move **away** from the windows. There are children about," he continued, lowering his tone like a scandalized school marm as he gestured out the glass kitchen doors towards his families stump.

With the grace of a ballerina and the speed of a puma Ivy reached to the side and picked up batter speckled spatula from the countertop and held it up in the air threateningly at Jenks. The pixie cackled in response, but tightened his hold on his thimble of peanut butter nonetheless and slowly flew back towards the patio doors before disappearing through them.

"Is the coast clear?" I asked as I helped myself to a piece of toast while Ivy stared off in the direction Jenks had disappeared in.

"Uh huh," she breathed out. "Feel free to continue man-handling my goodies," she continued, grinning crookedly as she turned to face me.

I placed the half-finished piece of toast I had been holding back down on my plate and turned my eyes towards her appraisingly, looking her up and down with lecherously speculative eyes. I bit down on my bottom lip and chewed on it for a second wondering where to begin before I finally let it slide free and began to walk towards her. I came to a stop just in front of Ivy and breathed in deeply before I reached around her to cup her ass again while I simply leaned my head forward to kiss the base of her neck. _Mine, all mine_, my brain purred as I slowly and possessively mapped her ass with my hands.

There was so much more beautiful terrain to traverse however, and after a while I trailed my hands upwards over her hips, before moving them to her flat stomach. I dipped my thumbs under the tight material of her tank top so that I could feel the warmth of her flesh, and my breath hitched as her stomach muscles twitched underneath my fingers.

Exhaling raggedly, I slipped my fingers out of her tank top and began to drag my hands up her sides. My movements were slow and teasing as I made my way up her torso, and her chest began to rise and fall more rapidly as her arousal grew. I knew if I looked up that there would be little, if any, brown left in her eyes, but I kept my eyes focused on my hands, liking the way I looked touching her.

When the tops of my hands brushed the undersides of her breasts a small, tremulous sound fell from Ivy's lips and I felt my panties become moist as a rush of desire tore through me and my inner-muscles clenched. I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth again and moved my hands further up until I was cupping her breasts in my hands, the weight and roundness of them making the damp spot between my legs throb and pulse with need.

My thumbs fanned out over her hardening nipples and I thought about making a joke about suddenly craving milk, but as I gently squeezed Ivy's breasts and she let out a soft, needful moan, I found that I couldn't speak. All I could do was lean forward and trail my lips and tongue over her exposed flesh as my hands lovingly explored her chest.

*DING DONG*

I started, the sound of the doorbell jarring me out of the pleasant Ivy-induced haze I had fallen into.

"Was that …?" I began ask even though I knew perfectly well that it was the doorbell.

"Doorbell," Ivy husked. Her voice low and rough and when I glanced up at her I saw that her eyes were just as black as I had thought they would be.

*DING DONG*

"If we ignore it maybe they'll go away," I murmured though I mournfully moved my hands away from her breasts to rest on her hips.

*DING DONG*

We were still for a few moments, both of our chests still rising and falling rapidly with desire as we waited to see if the bell would ring again.

"That's gotta be it," I said, really, really, really wanting to kick whoever was at the door in the crotch with a steel-toed boot.

*DING DONG*

"Oh for the love of," I muttered savagely taking a step back from Ivy. "I'll get it," I said, not wanting whoever was at the door to be assaulted by six-feet of black-eyed, sexually frustrated vampire. Nobody deserved that, no matter how bad their timing was.

I marched towards the door ready to open it, call out "Not interested! Sorry," and slam it immediately after. I planned the whole thing out in my head as I made my way towards the door and I figured that the encounter would take five seconds or less, and calculated that I could be back with Ivy within a minute of leaving her if I walked quickly enough.

I pulled the door open swiftly, words already tumbling out of my mouth as I did.

"Not inter … Glenn?" I asked my eyes widening as I registered the figure standing in front of me.

"Hey, Rachel," Glenn replied smiling warmly as he took a step towards me to enter the church.

Automatically I took a step back making room for him.

"What aren't you interested in?" he asked conversationally as he entered the church fully allowing me to close the door.

"Oh nothing," I said slowly. I was staring at him as if he were some sort of strange mythological creature with the head of a horse and body of an ostrich or something, and I knew it was rude, but I couldn't quite wrap my mind around the fact that he was standing in front of me. "Local newspaper," I managed to get out. "They've been coming around asking for 'donations'."

"You don't want to know when finger paint stations are going to be set up at the local library?" he asked playfully as he slipped off his shoes.

He had been trained well by Ivy not to wear outdoor footwear in the church.

"No," I replied dimly, still too gobsmacked by his presence to realize that he was teasing me and respond accordingly.

Glenn stared at me for a moment as if contemplating whether he should try and figure out what was going on with me, but then he looked away clearly deciding that figuring out what was going on in my head was an impossible task, especially at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

"Is Ivy home?"

_Ivy_, I thought, _his girlfriend who I had been feeling up in the kitchen minutes ago after seducing her away from him._

"Yeah," I breathed out. "Kitchen," I added, trying not to hyperventilate.

"Thanks," Glenn responded slowly, no doubt a little unnerved by my freakish behavior.

I stood still as a statue, watching him walk toward the kitchen in his socks, my body only lurching into motion after him when he had almost reached the doorway that led into large room.

I wondered at the wisdom of following him in there, certain that I didn't want to see his reunion with Ivy, but my legs had started moving and they were taking me towards the kitchen so there didn't seem to be much that I could do about it.

Glenn was apparently half-cheetah, half-man because by the time I made it into the kitchen he had already crossed the room and was holding a stiff-bodied Ivy in his arms, his lips pressed against her smooth, ivory cheek as his deep voice warmly said, "It's good to see you."

Ivy pulled back from him and smiled as she placed her hands on his chest in a way that was somehow restraining and affectionate. It was like she was holding him back while also checking out his pecs.

The ambiguousness of the action was truly impressive.

I was comforted that his large frame was no longer wrapped around her, but at the same time was freaking out seeing them touching. I was torn. I wanted to fall to my knees and beg for his forgiveness but I also wanted to run over to him screeching like a harpy and claw at his face until he unhanded my snuggle-muffin.

God, my brain was confusing sometimes.

Despite Ivy's defensively placed hands I saw Glenn begin to lean forward as if to kiss her and I was compelled to do something.

"Uh," I said.

So it wasn't brilliant but it was _something_.

"Rachel," Ivy gasped stepping away from Glenn.

She'd been aware of me the moment I entered the room but she was using my clumsily announced presence as an excuse to take a step back from Glenn.

"Hey," I said, smiling and nodding awkwardly as my eyes traveled between them. "I can uh, see that you're getting, uh … reacquainted," I went on, "and that's cool. I'll let you get back to that. I just wanted to tell you," I said focusing my gaze on Ivy, "that I'm going … out and I'll be back after … I mean later. Later on … in the day. So … bye," I finished giving them both another awkward smile and then I turned quickly and ran away.

**To be continued …**


	7. Chapter 7

**Title: **Open Your Eyes

**Author:** Janine

**Fandom:** The Hollows

**Pairing:** Ivy/Rachel

**Rating:** PG

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them.

**Chapter Summary:** Rachel returns home after hiding out while Ivy talked to Glenn.

**PART 7**

When I returned to the church just before sundown, I found Ivy sprawled out on the couch watching an alarmingly graphic documentary about cannibalistic insects. I paused in the doorway, watching as her head slowly turned to look at me and quickly prayed that her choice in television programs didn't reflect her current state of mind.

"Hey," I greeted.

Rumor has it that Marianna is my middle name, but really it's Eloquence.

"I was beginning to wonder if you were ever coming back," Ivy's voice was monotone, but her lips curved up a little as she spoke and I knew that she was as okay as she could be given how she had spent her afternoon.

I smiled a little sheepishly, acknowledging the barb and the truth of it. I probably could have come back sooner, but I didn't want to risk coming back while Glenn was still around. I'd face off against Were's, vampires, banshees, black witches and demons without hesitation, but the idea of facing Glenn's accusatory eyes was too much for me to even contemplate. Facing off against the Inderland's Most Wanted I had moral indignation on my side and righteous fury had been enough to see me through many difficult situations, but all I could offer Glenn was lowered eyes and an abashed 'sorry' and I knew that even combined they wouldn't be enough.

"Care for some company?" I asked pushing off of the doorframe into the room. Ivy looked like she needed a hug and I loved that I was able to give them to her now.

"Always," she responded, and she shifted on the couch a little making some room for me to lie down in front of her.

_Perfect spooning position_, I thought dreamily.

I wasted no time moving over towards her and soon found myself delightfully surrounded by sleek limbs, warm skin, and vampire incense.

"How did it go?" I asked a little while after settling down on the couch.

Lord knew I didn't really want to talk about it, and Ivy wasn't exactly one to let loose with her feelings over a box of bonbons and Meg Ryan DVDs, but I knew that the conversation with Glenn had to have been difficult and that she needed to talk about it, even if she didn't particularly want to.

"As well as could be expected," Ivy sighed, shifting uncomfortably behind me though whatever discomfort she was feeling was emotional and not influenced by the way we were arranged on the couch.

I winced a little as she words registered with me. 'As well as could be expected' pretty much meant it sucked but things weren't thrown, no blood was shed, and nothing was said on either side that couldn't be forgiven at a later date when tempers had cooled.

Ivy's arm was draped across my waist and her hand resting lightly on my stomach. I moved my hand down to where hers lay and began to slowly run my fingers back and forth along the back of her hand.

"So, does that mean that he doesn't hate your guts?" I asked, remembering her worry from a few nights before that ending her romantic relationship with Glenn would ruin her friendship and working relationship with him as well.

Ivy snorted indelicately behind me, and then sighed softly.

"He doesn't hate my guts," she breathed out. "I … I don't think he was terribly surprised by the news actually," she continued sighing again. "He definitely didn't _like_ the news, but I don't think he was surprised by it." Her body stiffened behind me with tension as she spoke and I put my other hand over top of hers, trying to offer her a little comfort and support.

"What did he say?" I asked gently.

She breathed in deeply and was silent for a few moments before she finally exhaled and responded.

"He said he should have known," she related in the self-protective monotone I had unfortunately heard from her quite a bit in the past. "He wanted to know if I was the one who moved on you. If I'd been hunting you the entire time he and I were dating. He wanted to know if we'd had sex or shared blood since I'd been with him, and he wanted to know how long it had been going on," she stopped talking for a moment to draw in a deep, fortifying breath. "I answered truthfully, and afterwards he just seemed … tired, resigned I guess. He …" she stopped speaking for a moment and I wished desperately that I had been facing her so that I could have tried to read the look on her face, but what she was thinking and feeling was a mystery to me at that moment. "He didn't stay long," she finally breathed out. I knew that wasn't what she had begun to say before, but I didn't press her. "Matthew's a professional and a good person. We'll be fine. I just need to give him some space for a while."

"I'm glad," I told her honestly.

Her past had made Ivy guarded. It wasn't easy for her to let down her defenses enough for people to really get to know her. Hell, I'd known her for years without really having any idea what she was really like. Having someone like Glenn in her life, someone who knew what her life was like and understood the things she struggled with daily was important and I was happy that my indecision hadn't cost her that.

There was of course a little spark of jealousy at the thought of them spending time together again in the near future when Glenn's wounds had healed some, but I knew from seeing Ivy and Kisten interact that she was capable of being friends, and only friends, with her former lovers.

"So," I began trying to lighten the mood a little bit. "I guess this space thing means that I should probably try to avoid being picked up by the FIB a while, huh?"

Ivy's body relaxed behind me. "If you can manage it," the vampire drawled. She sounded amused and I was glad to hear the lighter tone in her voice. "Though I have to say, avoiding being picked up by the FIB is always a good idea," she continued in a teasingly condescending tone. "Like most good ideas it's just been extremely difficult for you to grasp."

It was funny because it was true and that made me want to cry a little. It was like I was genetically predisposed to trouble. Even when I was trying to be good I ended up with someone trying to slap handcuffs on me. _Woe_, I piteously moaned in my mind, _woe_.

"Watch it," I muttered moving my elbow back to jab Ivy lightly in the stomach. "Now that you're free to get some you don't want to talk your way out of it."

"Not likely," Ivy responded nuzzling my neck.

"What? You don't think I can hold out against your charms?" I asked challengingly as I squirmed in her arms until I was able to turn around and face her.

"No, not as long as I can hold out at least," Ivy stated as if it was pure fact. "I've had a lot of practice … restraining myself," she continued a second later and I felt my face flush with heat and knew that I was visibly blushing.

She'd had a lot of practice because I'd been sexually frustrating her for the entire time that we had lived together, if not longer than that. She had become an expert at looking but not touching, at yearning from a distance. She was well acquainted with holding back. She knew what it was to have what she wanted right in front of her but not be able to take it. She knew what it was to smell my desire, to hear my heart thundering in my chest and know she was the cause of it but have to walk away nonetheless.

Yes, Ivy could hold out longer than me. She'd been holding out for years and I had barely been able to wait the three days she had needed in order to break up with Glenn in person.

In a battle of will I stood no chance against Ivy.

"Right," I murmured still blushing profusely.

"Ssh, there's no need for that dear heart," she purred, lifting her hand to stroke my ruddy cheek lightly. "I don't want to hold out."

Her voice was dipped in honey, it was dripping with sex; it was a caress in and of itself. I shuddered slightly in her arms and I knew instinctively that if she really wanted to she could talk me to orgasm.

"I-veeee," I groaned in response, because I word good for stuffs and other things.

"Ra-chel," she replied in a voice that was barely a whisper, her perfect lips forming the syllables of my name with a precision that would have made my knees weak if I had been standing. "You won. Claim your prize."

I was still for a moment, temporarily overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of her sexiness, but then I surged towards her, molding my body against the length of her as I pressed my lips to hers hotly.

Hell yeah, I was going to claim my prize. I was going to claim it like a champ all night starting right that moment.

**To be continued …**


	8. Chapter 8

**Title: **Open Your Eyes

**Author:** Janine

**Fandom:** The Hollows

**Pairing:** Ivy/Rachel

**Rating:** PG

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them.

**Chapter Summary:** Rachel returns home after hiding out while Ivy talked to Glenn.

**PART 8**

Ivy might not have wanted to hold out forever but I was beginning to think that she was having a ton of fun sexually frustrating me.

After claiming Ivy's lips on the couch my plan was to get the vampire on her king-sized bed naked as soon as possible, but the lovely Ivy had other ideas. As we kissed I had moved to straddle her, and when my hands began to migrate under her shirt, she captured them and restrained them with her own as she had done days before.

"I have an idea," she had murmured, stroking my hands gently.

"I've got a lot of ideas," I had husked back, "but you're going to have to give me my hands back."

"Oh, I can guess what you have in mind dear heart," Ivy purred in response, her sharp little fangs showing as she smiled wolfishly at me.

"And your idea is different?" I asked arching a ginger eyebrow at her as my lips curved down in a slight frown.

"Not so different," Ivy had replied, her long, pianist fingers tenderly stroking mine again. "It's more of a first step."

"I've gotten pretty familiar with the territory over the last few days," I breathed out roughly. The things she was doing with her fingers were driving me to distraction and making me very aware of the tingle between my legs our kissing had produced. "I'm ready to jump right in," I told her trying to tug my hands out of hers.

Ivy tightened her hold on me enough to restrain my movements but not enough to hurt. She was strong, so strong, but she knew how to control her power. She knew exactly what she could and couldn't do to me without hurting me.

The thought caused a rush of desire to flow through me and within seconds the tingling between my legs had turned into a throbbing.

"There's no rush," Ivy whispered, "we have all the time in the world now. Have some patience dear heart. Waiting a little while longer won't kill you."

There was a glint in Ivy's eyes as she spoke and it was at that moment that I began to suspect that she was slowing us down on purpose and that my consternation amused her.

I won't lie, the thought irritated me but I also understood why she was doing it. This was the first time in our relationship where I was the one after something that Ivy had. Everything before this had been her asking and me denying, her laying her heart out and me guarding mine, her moving forward and me stepping back. Despite Ivy's strength and speed and combat proficiency I had always had the real power in our relationship. Rynn Cormel had been right when he had talked to me all those weeks ago; when it came to Ivy and me, I was the dominant. But now the tables had turned slightly, the power balance had shifted between us, had evened out slightly and Ivy was momentarily enjoying being the one in a position to deny.

I sighed softly then, realizing that this was a battle I was not going to win.

"What did you have in mind?" I asked knowing that I had to give her what she wanted to get what I wanted.

Ivy desired me just as badly as I desired her but she was far better at restraining herself than I was. If I didn't challenge her too much I knew that we would make love before the end of the night. However, if I kept on trying to direct the course of events I suspected that I'd be made to wait for her touch for an unacceptably long period of time.

Ivy smiled and reached out for me, placing her palms flush against my jean clad thighs and then she slowly ran her hands up my legs to my waist which she grasped.

"It's a surprise," she purred, "But don't worry, you'll like it. It involves me taking these off," she continued as she lightly fingered the waistband and button of my jeans.

And that's how I found myself stretched out in Ivy's bathtub, naked as the day I was born, with scented bubbles and a very relaxed and comfortable vampire surrounding me.

I moaned contently as Ivy's fingers combed through my wet hair, enjoying the feel of the warm water and the gentle slopes of her body behind me.

"Okay, you win," I sighed dreamily as her fingers slipped from my hair and danced lightly over my shoulders before she drew them gently down my arms. "This is nice," I admitted.

"I'm glad you approve," Ivy murmured, dipping her head down slightly so that she could kiss my temple.

I smiled and angled my head towards her, encouraging her to kiss my skin again.

"I feel like I'm in a romance novel or something," I confessed, blushing slightly as the uncharacteristically sappy words came out of my mouth. "All that's missing are candles and one of us reciting poetry."

Ivy laughed softly, and I could feel the vibrations of it where our bodies were pressed together. There was something incredibly intimate about that and I found myself shifting a little so that I could snuggle better into her arms.

"I could get candles," Ivy responded bracing her hands on the edge of tub, preparing to push herself up out of the tub.

I reached out quickly and pulled her hands back into the tub before she could start to rise.

"You're not going anywhere," I told her placing her hands back on my body. Candles were an unnecessary extravagance whereas Ivy was crucial to my enjoyment of this bathing experience. There was no question about it, she stayed.

"I could recite some poetry," Ivy volunteered helpfully.

I didn't need to turn around to know that she was smiling.

"Oh really," I murmured, my voice rising comically high. "You've memorized some, huh? Could it be that the recitation of poetry is a standard Tamwood seduction technique?"

"Oh, I'm naturally seductive," Ivy purred, "I don't need a 'technique'."

She started to run her hands over my body under the water as she spoke, as if to emphasis how easily she could make my heart begin to pump faster and send my blood flowing south.

"Besides," she continued conversationally, "I was planning on composing a poem for you."

That got my eyebrows crawling towards my hairline again. "You write poetry?"

"Rachel," Ivy drawled. "All lovers are poets."

The utter seriousness with which she pronounced that made me laugh and Ivy purred happily and hugged me to her until I started to calm down.

"Okay," I said when I had gained control of myself once more. "Lay it on me."

Ivy was silent for a moment as she composed, then she cleared her throat and began.

"Sweet smell of redwood

Your hair is very fragrant

I love you a lot."

When Ivy finished delivering the haiku, I was silent and still for a second, but then my body tensed and I had to bite down on my bottom lip to try and contain my laughter. My efforts were futile however and soon I was shaking in her arms, consumed by silent amusement.

I tried to contain the laughter. Ivy had delivered her 'poem' with great flourish and I wasn't quite sure how serious she was about it, but when she pressed her lips to my bare shoulder I could feel that they were curved up in a smile.

"You didn't like that one?" she asked playfully. "I can write another."

"Oh god," I muttered but I was interested to know what she would come up with next and my interest showed in my tone.

"Vampire made boots

Look really damn hot on you

Your ass is nice too."

Once again, Ivy delivered the poem in a sober and important tone of voice and my body was shaking in her arms as I was overcome with laughter once more.

"Beautiful," I sighed sarcastically.

I was smiling widely though, and I knew my pleasure rang through in my voice. I loved it when Ivy was silly. The seriousness our lives demanded sometimes made me forget how funny she could be when she was in a good mood, and her happiness made me almost as giddy as the poems themselves.

"Dear heart, my dear heart

Long has my soul wept for thee

You make great pancakes."

Ivy's agile mind was working rapidly now that she had re-familiarized herself with haiku structure and she delivered that gem without prompting.

"You really know just what to say to make a girl swoon, don't you?" I asked dryly though I was still smiling and my face was actually beginning to hurt from it. I was deeply smitten with her and no amount of sarcasm could hide it.

"Don't worry," Ivy purred beguilingly. "I'll catch you when you fall."

"My hero," I sighed dreamily, doing my very best Victorian romance novel impersonation even though I meant the words completely.

Ivy chuckled at my dramatics and as she did I shifted in her arms so that I could press my lips to the base of her throat.

She sighed contently and I felt her chest rumble in pleasure when I kissed her lightly once again. Her hands began to trail over my skin under the water and I kept my lips on her, placing small butterfly kisses over the flesh that was within reach of my mouth.

The warm water had made her normally pale skin flush delightfully, and her flesh was soft, so wonderfully, tantalizing soft. My tongue peaked out from between my lips to taste her more fully and before I became consciously aware of what I was doing I found my teeth grazing her skin and then clamping down on it.

Ivy moaned and her back arched into my body for a moment as pleasure coursed through her before she eased back into her former position. The sound of her moan traveled straight through me and settled in my groin.

A sleepy contentment had been settling over me as we bathed together, but as my desire increased so did my alertness until I was preternaturally aware of every little hitch of her voice, and the sound of the water rippling around us as we moved, and of my own heart pounding in my chest.

I bit down on Ivy's flesh again and she whimpered as her hands grasped my arms tightly, holding onto me as if I was the only thing keeping her grounded.

"Ivy," I husked, my warm breath bathing her skin. "Bite me," I whispered, kissing her skin again. "Bite me."

Ivy breathed in so deeply it was almost a hiss.

"Are you sure?" she asked tremulously.

"Yes," I breathed out. "When I said everything, I meant everything."

She hadn't asked me directly about it over the past few days, but I knew that she was worried about whether I would actually let her bite me when the time came. She had been very careful since I had admitted my feelings to her not to release pheromones around me. She didn't want me to think that she was manipulating me and she _needed _to know that allowing myself to be bitten was a decision I was making with all of my faculties.

"My mind was clear when I told you I wanted to give you everything," I continued speaking slowly and deliberately, "and my mind is clear now. I'm not going to change my mind. I give this to you freely."

Ivy was silent for a moment and then a long moan escaped from her throat. Seconds after that her hands were in motion, grasping my hips and pulling me on top of her so that was straddling her waist.

She gazed up at me, her thumbs stroking my hips gently.

"Thank you," she whispered gazing up at me, her midnight black eyes shining wetly.

Her hands trailed up my torso until she was able to cup my face between them, then she strained up to meet my lips and kissed me gently, each brush of her lips and stroke of her tongue bursting with love.

As our lips continued to meet with increasing passion Ivy's hands began to move once more, slipping from my face and dancing down my chest until she was cupping my breasts in her hands. I moaned into her mouth and she answered with one of her own and then she took my bottom lip between her teeth and bit down gently, teasing me, giving me a taste of the bite that I was truly anticipating.

Her thumbs grazed over my nipples and as they did I felt my scar begin to tingle. Ivy was finally releasing pheromones. I shivered as the sensations rushed through my body, and when her fingers squeezed the hard nubs grasped between them I cried out loudly and arched my chest, begging her for more.

She placed one last kiss on my lips and then moved down to kiss my jaw before sliding her lips further down to my neck. The pheromones she had started to release had my scars singing and when she breathed hotly on my neck it sent of thrill of pleasure so intense through me that for a moment I couldn't breathe.

I lost track of time and where I was. I could have been on Mars for all I cared, nothing mattered as long as Ivy was touching me, and kissing, and licking and nipping at my flesh. All that mattered in the world was her hands on my body, and that her fingers kept on doing the wonderful things they were doing, and that her mouth stayed where it was, setting me on fire.

My hands gripped her upper arms tightly, and her name became to fall from my lips like a prayer, my voice reverent and ecstatic.

"Please," I gasped, tears leaking from the corners of my eyes as my nails pressed into her flesh so desperately I drew blood.

Ivy moaned deeply, so deeply that it was almost a growl, and her tongue peaked out of her mouth to lap at my skin. Her hands were still playing with my breasts, squeezing and massaging, her thumbs brushing over the hard tips of my nipples lightly and then roughly, pinching and then tugging, before her thumbs moved over them again soothingly. I felt smooth teeth against my neck and the teasing poke of fangs on my flesh as she teased us both, threatening penetration but not pushing in.

"Ivy," I begged shamelessly.

"Yes dear heart," she rasped, the sound of her voice sending a shiver through my body.

"Bite me now," I demanded. "Bite me now," I repeated, digging my nails hard enough into her arms that she hissed and then shuddered.

"Okay," she breathed out.

For a second nothing happened, but then I felt the sharp points of her fangs digging into my skin and before I could so much as say 'thank you', she bit down sending her icy fangs into my neck and my body bent like a bow, arching almost painfully into her as the ecstasy the bite tore through me. A half-sob, half-shout emerged from my throat as Ivy began to pull and my hands tangled in her silky onyx hair, holding her to me.

A feeling of warmth and safety began to merge with the pleasure coursing through me and I had enough wits left to open my second sight so that I could watch as our auras merged, the shining gold of hers covering the black of mine making me feel clean in a way I hadn't since the original colour of my aura had been lost.

Ivy's hand slipped between my legs and I whimpered as her fingers brushed over my clit. Distantly, I noted her hand leave my center and knock against my upper thigh. I realized I was so wet that her hand had slipped, and while I normally would have been somewhat embarrassed by that I was too far gone to be self-conscious.

She recovered quickly however, and soon her fingers were moving steadily between my legs, alternating between pinching and circling and using her entire palm to stimulate my flesh.

I could still feel her pulling at my neck though she was sucking with much less intensity. Her aura was still wrapped around me, and I could feel her pleasure flowing into me in waves as I moved closer and closer to orgasm.

Suddenly Ivy's mouth pulled away from neck and I gasped at the loss of her. Automatically I tilted my head down and my eyes found pitch black shimmering orbs focused on my face. Her lips were stained red with my blood and her fangs glistened wetly in the bathroom light.

Two fingers slipped inside of me and I breathed in deeply, my eyes widening at the pleasure of it, but I did not take my eyes off of her.

"You're so beautiful," Ivy whispered blinking as she looked up at me in wonder. "I love you so much," she breathed out, tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes as she spoke.

My lips parted to tell her that I loved her too, but I couldn't speak. Her words and the devotion in her eyes pushed me to the edge and I started to climax, my body tensing and then jerking into her hand over and over again as my orgasm took me over and I tumbled into pleasure, my eyes never leaving Ivy's for a single second.

I collapsed heavily against Ivy what felt like an eternity later.

My breath came in harsh pants and though I can't be sure I think I was crying.

I wrapped my arms around her body as tightly I was could while still shaking and convulsing through the aftershocks rocking my body. I was distantly aware of speaking though I think the only word coming out of my mouth was her name over and over again. She pressed her lips to my forehead and began to speak to me but I couldn't comprehend what she was saying. I just listened to the melodic sound of her voice and kept clinging to her because she was Ivy and Ivy made everything okay.

**PART 9**

Being Ivy's lover made me wish that I had been an artist. She was comfortable in her own skin, in her nudity and would have made an excellent model. I was crouched at the bottom of the mattress cradling her ankle in my hand slowly caressing her smooth, creamy skin before I trailed my hand up a little higher to feel her calf and higher up to her thigh. She twitched and let out a little squeak of laughter when my fingers trailed behind the back of her knee, and I nearly melted into a puddle of goo then and there, but other than that she was peaceful and still, allowing me to explore her body at leisure.

I'd spent the past hour running my hands over her body, licking and kissing, caressing, pinching and squeezing, until she was sweating and straining, and arching up into me, but it had been fevered, and while not rushed, I hadn't simply luxuriated in her skin while I had made love to her as much as I had tried to devour it.

As my fingers trailed higher up in her thigh, they ran over slick skin and I breathed in deeply, running the pads of my fingers over the damp flesh for a few seconds remembering the feeling of my fingers inside of Ivy before I trailed my eyes up the length of her body so that I could see her face.

Her eyes were mostly black which surprised me considering how calm she was, and a little shiver ran through me as I remembered staring down into her jet black eyes, the tips of her icy fangs showing through pink, kissed swollen lips as I drove her closer and closer to orgasm.

There was a crooked, teasing smile on Ivy's lips as she looked down at me then, and I pursed my lips at her and pinched the tantalizing skin my fingers had running over in response.

Ivy simply purred softly and smiled wider.

I went back to exploring.

I had known before making love to Ivy that I loved her and that I wanted her, but just how much I loved and wanted her body surprised me.

When I had fantasized about her in the past, my thoughts had been rather vague. I had focused on her scent and her face, on those dark eyes staring at me hungrily while her strong, slim fingers moved between my legs or her wicked, talented tongue pleasured me. But now that I had seen all of her, touched all of her, and knew how amazing it felt to have her bare breasts cupped in my hands, now that I knew what it felt like to have her hard dark nipples in my mouth I never wanted to stop touching her. I wanted to hold her slim hips in my hands and feel them arching up into me. I wanted those long, lithe legs wrapped around me. I wanted to feel the soft press of dark curls, slick with moisture sliding across my skin.

I pressed my lips to Ivy's hipbone and she hummed softly before she trailed her fingers over my neck and then into my hair.

"Why don't you come up here and visit for a while," she murmured.

She sounded amused and when I tore my eyes away from the smooth skin of her abdomen to look up at her face I saw a teasing smile on her lips and cinnamon eyes twinkling happily as she looked down the length of her body at me.

"I like it down here," I mumbled nipping at her skin lightly before a wicked smile touched my lips and I moved one of my hands between her legs and slowly drew my index finger along the length of her sex. "It's fun," I continued a second later drawing my damp finger up to my mouth and sucking on it.

Ivy's hips rolled and a low moan escaped from her.

When I looked back up at her face her eyes were no longer cinnamon and her instead of smiling she was biting down on her bottom lip.

I placed a kiss on her stomach and then I slid up her body as she had requested until I was propped up on elbows looking down at her.

"Tease," Ivy muttered though she happily accepted my lips when I leaned down to kiss her.

"Takes one to know one," I breathed out against her lips before kissing her again.

"Ooh," Ivy drawled, "burn."

I smiled but then slapped her lightly on the stomach for good measure. I didn't want her thinking she could get away with such sassiness with impunity.

Ivy growled loudly in response, and as I looked down at her, her eyes were consumed by darkness. Her figure seemed to grow more imposing around me, and I found myself shivering despite the heat of her body against me, almost as if someone had just cranked the AC up to the max.

She was pulling an aura naked in bed with me!

"Stop that," I murmured leaning down to kiss her cheek sweetly.

She laughed and in a matter of seconds here eyes were their normal brown and the heat returned around us.

"That used to scare you," she said softly as I trailed the backs of my fingers over her cheeks.

"I know," I breathed out softly. "But not anymore," I continued seriously holding her eyes as I spoke, wanting her to know that the vampire aspects of her that used to scare me and intimidate me no longer did. "Actually, I think that's kind of neat," I told her smiling in an attempt to reduce the heaviness of my previous words. "You just better not try that when we're fighting."

"Already planning fights are you?" Ivy asked arching an eyebrow. "We've only been going out three days and already you're anticipating a fight?" she continued though she looked and sounded amused.

"Since I'm one of the people in this relationship, yeah," I responded self-deprecatingly. "Any day now I'm going to do something you think is an extremely bad idea, and then you're going to tell me it's a bad idea and I'm not going to listen to you because bad ideas always seem like good ideas to me, and then we're going to get in a fight. But," I drawled enticingly, "After the fight we'll have really, _really_ hot make-up sex which will make it all worthwhile," I continued stroking her stomach lightly with my hand. "As long as you don't pull an aura that is," I finished meeting her gaze seriously.

"Mm," Ivy hummed lowly, "In that case I kind of feel like picking a fight right now."

I slid my hand up her stomach and over her breast, pausing to cup it for a moment before I trailed my fingers over her collarbone to her neck. I gave her neck a domineering little squeeze which made her eyelashes flutter and then I drew my hand back down over her torso possessively.

"You don't need to pick a fight now," I murmured lowly, playfully dipping my finger into her bellybutton. "We're still in the honeymoon stage."

"And what does that mean?" Ivy asked though the smile on her face indicated that she had a very good idea what I was going to say.

"It means," I drawled before dropping my head to kiss the swell of her breast, "that my body is your oyster. Do as you will."

Ivy growled softly and then reached out for me, grasping my hips tightly so that she could pull me on top of her.

"Do you know what it does to me when you say things like that?" she asked, looking up at me with jet black eyes as her chest rumbled happily.

"Yes," I said biting my lip coquettishly as I looked down at her. "That's why I say them."

Ivy ran her hands along my thighs and exhaled raggedly.

"You're a dirty girl, Rachel," she breathed out. "I like it," she purred a moment later as her lips curled up lecherously, flashing a tantalizing hint of fang.

"Show me how much," I whispered grinding against her for emphasis.

"Mm," Ivy murmured grasping my hips once more before flipping us over so that she was on top of me. She leaned down and brought our lips together, and for quite a while after that we both found better things to do with our mouths than talk.

**The End**


End file.
